Our Barclays Premier League Team of the Season 2013/14

The Premier League season is over, and after 380 games, over 1050 goals and the crowning of Manchester City as the new champions, it’s time to reflect on who has stood out this year. We’ve picked our team of the season, playing a good old-fashioned 442 (with subs too, naturally), so have a look and see if you agree with us…

Why this team? Everton have been brilliant this year, and this success has been built on a rock solid defence featuring full backs who are superb at going forward in Baines and Coleman. Tim Howard has been immense too between the sticks. John Terry has had his best season in years, and alongside him is one of Southampton’s unsung heroes.

In midfield, Stevie G has powered Liverpool ever so close to the title (let’s ignore that slip), Hazard has provided Chelsea with real flair, Yaya has been a beast and scored a ridiculous amount of goals for a midfielder, and Adam Lallana deserves to start for England in Brazil on this basis of his performances this season.

And up top, can anyone really argue with that selection?

A couple of honourable mentions for players who didn’t make the bench. Aaron Ramsey could have been the player of the season if it wasn’t for such bad luck with injuries, Jordan Henderson has finally shown himself to the the midfielder we all thought he could never be, and Wayne Rooney has battled admirably to try and rescue any kind of success for Man Utd this term.

We also asked our intern Matt to put his team together, to provide a bit of contrast and expose our lack of footballing knowledge. Here’s who he went for…

This season has had a whole lot of goals and I feel as though this is partly because full-backs are getting much further forward than in previous years. Two prime examples are Seamus Coleman and Luke Shaw, who have contributed massively to their club’s good performances this year. Cardiff have had a terrible season but David Marshall’s form never seems to fluctuate. The top two clubs (Liverpool and Man City) have also been very solid in defence due to the solidity of their main centre-backs, Vincent Kompany and Martin Skrtel.

On either side of midfield I have chosen Adam Lallana and Eden Hazard. Hazard’s magical feet have been perfection and torn teams apart. Manchester City are possibly the best attacking force in the Premier League and Yaya Touré and David Silva have been the core strength of this, providing a huge number of goals and assists between them.

Up front I have firstly gone for the obvious player, Luis Suarez, who has been the best Premier League player by far this year. Secondly I have gone for Wayne Rooney. Manchester United have had a dreadful season yet Rooney still has 12 assists and 17 goals, which shows his sheer talent.

Still hungry for more football? Of course you are. The World Cup is just a few weeks away, and the genius that is Football Clichés has written a free ebook guide to the tournament, which you can pre-order now. It’s the perfect accompaniment to watching the tournament this summer, as we navigate the treacherous terrain of Dutch in-fighting and the dreaded Group of Death:

And don’t forget that the one and only Jimmy Bullard’s first book is also out later this month. You don’t want to miss BEND IT LIKE BULLARD! Order here.